A park that offers close access to a wide variety of native animals, excellent playgrounds, interesting walks through natural forest and is free? Blackbutt Reserve exceeded our expectations when we arranged to meet some unschooling friends at one of Newcastle’s best picnic locations.
The reserve is easily accessible from the road and offers enough parking for standard days. I can imagine the spots may fill up quickly on public holidays or weekends, but the small parking fee ($4.90/day) may prompt visitors to carpool or park elsewhere.
When we arrived, the reserve was full of uniformed schoolkids. The crowds initially deterred my girls from wanting to explore the playground, so we wandered around the perimeter of the main attractions until the classed left on their chartered buses.
While a group of schoolkids dominate the playground, we play in another section of the park.
Our girls start playing on the equipment once most of the kids have been herded elsewhere.
This park beautifully combines natural features with artificial ones to make a greater playspace for adventurous children.
After twanging a little tongue, these tall boxes emit a sonorous tone. I like the integration of musical instruments into playgrounds but find that after an initial experimentation, they're ignored by most of the children.
The girls race down the slide.
A small, second playground is located next to the kiosk.
This must be a popular spot for birthday parties, and the girls find tiny samples from the parties scattered around the grounds. Brioni selects two sticks to use as chopsticks in retrieving a small toy from beneath the gutter's grille.
When the girls retrieve the toy, they discover it's a pink ring and decide to give it to Calista.
Blackbutt Reserve is maintained by rangers who look maintain a number of wildlife exhibits. Each day, koalas are brought from their enclosure to a public area for petting and photos. Although we aren’t too excited about seeing animals in enclosures, the girls hadn’t seen some of the birds in the wild before, and the proximity of the animals was quite exciting.
While exploring the grounds, we meet an echidna intent on its own path.
The last we saw of the echnidna, it was camouflaging itself with the bushes.
A number of wallabies and kangaroos are kept in enclosures at the reserve.
I do believe the animals are kept behind fences for their own comfort — if not, they would be constantly chased by kids eager to pet them!
The emu comes over to see if we've got anything to offer it.
The girls find the emu's feet fascinating!
I'm more interested in capturing the colour of the emu's eye — such a brilliant orange!
There's a lot of variety in the vegetation on the reserve. Several tracks lead around the ground for those who prefer a longer walk. We stuck to the shorter circuit.
A number of brightly coloured peacocks wanders freely around the grounds. The girls love finding their dropped fathers.
Some of the native animals are kept in small houses. This one contains a wombat which we can see sleeping behind a big pane of glass with the help of a red light.
By pulling aside a wooden cover, we can observe the bees working on their honeycomb.
Several koalas sleep at the top of their artificial trees during the day — right at the height of our elevated walkway around their enclosure.
Observing the koalas' interaction with the rangers presents a moral conundrum for me. I don't like the way the koalas' natural nocturnal patterns have been disturbed by afternoon feeding, but I understand that their exposure to a greater number of visitors attracts funds that leads to conservation of habitat.
Calista peers through the flaps that lead into the housing of nocturnal native animals.
A lazy goanna was sleeping in its artificial cave. Usually we only spy these running up the trunk of a gum tree!
Although we've seen flocks of Gouldian finches in outback Queensland, this is the first time the girls have been able to appreciate their bright colours up close.
When it flew from one side of the cage to the other, Brioni was delighted to discover that the black cockatoo is hiding a spray of scarlet feathers on its tail.
The tawny frogmouth owl is a very common sight in many parts of Australia, but rarely do we get to experience one this close.
I was equally delighted with discovering such a wonderful park as meeting up with some familiar and new faces. Two other unschooling mamas took the time to join us at the park, and I loved hearing about their lives and how they were consciously managing their growth and their relationships — especially as two of them had older children. Although we pursue different lifestyles, we are united in common values, and this was enough of a foundation for a fantastic afternoon of intimate sharing in a great location!
It's been almost a year since I last met up with Erica. Although we don't see each other very often, we stay in touch online, and it's been wonderful to watch each others' life-stories unfold in marvelous ways.
Visitors to the Newcastle area should definitely put Blackbutt Reserve on their list of great free activities. Along with Speers Point Park (which remains in our opinions as one of the best playgrounds in NSW), these two attractions mean families with children shouldn’t bypass Newcastle on their trips up the NSW coast.
1 · Leisa · 22 June 2014, 11:15
So lovely to read your writings again Lauren. :)
2 · Melanie · 22 June 2014, 13:08
Hi Lauren,
In this post I sense an edge of antipathy toward school children ie the way you expressed the children domianted the playground and then herded somehwere else, the general way you used the words when you were writing about the ‘school’ children seemed judgmental. I am curious to know do you feel antipathy towards school children and the choice people make to send their children to school?
3 · Julie · 22 June 2014, 14:42
I’m so excited to see you have decided to share your adventures with us again. I live about 20 mins from both Blackbutt Reserve and Speers Point Park and I am embarrassed to say I haven’t been to either since I was younger. You have inspired me to load up the kids and go back for another visit. Will definitely go during the week when it is not so busy. Look forward to hearing more of your travel stories.
4 · Melissa · 22 June 2014, 15:49
I’m so happy to see that you’re back to blogging again! Thank you for sharing your adventures with us again!
5 · Lisa · 22 June 2014, 16:47
So pleased to see you and the girls back!
6 · Angela · 22 June 2014, 21:56
So happy to see you back and follow your adventures!
7 · Jess Reed · 22 June 2014, 23:24
I love reading and am inspired by Lauren’s blogs but following up on What Melanie says I always am disappointed when Lauren’s words reflect what seems to be a defensive drive to judge traditionally school children such as an example of ‘herding’ the children. I am sure Lauren ‘herded ‘ her children away from the school
Kids yet can’t see it that way. I have been contemplating which type of schooling to follow bit have found home schoolers generally so critical of trad schooling ( eg check out number of articles showing negative effects of trad
Schooling on this blog) yet the trad schoolers seem to be less critical of alternative types of schooling which to me shows more confidence. It would be so much more
Enjoyable Lauren if you could be less judgemental about other forms of education or at least try to hide it. The main aim is to support all children and families in their choices. Life would be very boring if we all made the same choices.
8 · Erica · 23 June 2014, 10:13
Oh Lauren, your gorgeous posts and writing are so inspiring and beautiful! And so special to see the beautiful photo of us here :-D Big love, Erica. xo
9 · Jen in NSW · 23 June 2014, 20:53
Hi,
Glad to see you dropped by one of my favourite places to visit in Newcastle. I understand your dislike of caged animals. My gut says the same. But I am also glad to give my children a close up view of our wildlife. I especially take the time to talk about where we could come across these animals in the “free” world. I want them to notice the world around them and when they know what they can look for it helps them to “see”. It is great when we do see these animals in the wild and appreciate them from a distance.
I hope your travels stay safe.
Best wishes
Jen in NSW
10 · Cc · 25 June 2014, 12:07
Darn it. I actually like to read about your adventures, as my family spends a great deal of time in a 1973 Airstream in the summer, it inspires me. But your obvious dislike for school children and your veiled language turns me off.
I like this blog, but I’m perplexed by your judgements about kids who go to an external school.
It makes me sad that your kids shun “uniformed school children”. My kids would never not play with a child regardless of how they dress or where their family chooses to learn. Bummed.
:(
11 · linda · 2 July 2014, 16:19
So one of the reasons you don’t like mainstream schools is that they confine children to a school campus for learning and playing.
Now you don’t like mainstream schools when they bring children to a nature reserve to learn and play… Just as you’ve brought your children. Perhaps it’s challenging for you to see that schooled children’s learning is not all that different from yours, except that their learning is monitored.
12 · Annabel · 3 July 2014, 14:29
I find your blog posts really interesting and I am personally interested in the idea of homeschooling. This post makes me wonder if your children feel differently from other children their own age? And if so, why? Is it a developmental thing? Or is it a noise thing? Or is it a discomfort? Or mistrust?
I find it interesting that they didn’t want to intermingle and play? Do they feel self conscious? Embarrassed? Why wouldn’t confidently home schooled girls who travel widely and meet many new and interesting people and experiences feel confident about mingling with other children?
Personally I hated school and definitely felt ‘herded’ I think traditional education system models are crippling – but the alternatives make we wonder who turns out better equipped to socialise and navigate a world filled with people who are not like themselves.
I’d be really interested in hear your thoughts on this Lauren, if you ever blog about it. Do you feel that you live in a “us vs them” mentality? Do your daughters feel that way?
13 · meg · 17 July 2014, 01:56
An insight for those asking about the possible antipathy or judgement by Lauren or her children towards schooled children. I didn’t feel that, but that might be because I have been in similar situations with my own children.
I unschool my children as well, and they have loads of good friends who go to school, and no bad feelings towards them or bad feelings about schools. But when they arrive in a new place, if there is a large group of kids who they don’t know, who are all wearing a uniform and clearly belong in one group, it is intimidating for a child to approach. Nothing to do with “not liking” school children. They feel they are encroaching on “those kids’” territory, and will wait until they have moved along.
I went to school myself as a child, and even as a school-child would have felt the same way walking into a group from another school. Hell, I felt the same on the weekend walking into a large group of suited office workers, I thought they must have all known each other and “belonged” there, and I was intimidated walking into their space. But it turned out they were all just waiting for the elevator!
I think it’s a natural feeling, especially for a child.
And the word, “herd” yeah well, maybe that’s a little disparaging, but what other verb are you going to use to describe shifting a large group of living creatures from one place to the other? I often herd my kids from place to place. I think it describes the chore of moving them, not a negative description of the kids themselves.
14 · Katherine · 22 July 2014, 09:55
Beautiful photos, thank you for sharing your experience in such a lovely way.
I’m surprised your girls aren’t more curious and outgoing towards other children, even those living a different lifestyle considering all the traveling they’ve done. I find that when my children reject something or someone they have little to no experience with, it means I need to examine my own language and attitudes towards that person, group or experience. Teaching tolerance is difficult, but it means not using negative language towards the choices other people have made, you know?